John Lenz

John Lenz (Ph.D. Columbia University) is Chair of the Department of Classics. He teaches ancient Greek history, literature, language, philosophy, archaeology, myth, and religion. He is interested in the history of ideas and the legacy of Classical thought in succeeding centuries, the “Classical tradition.” He has presented numerous papers on intellectuals and society in ancient Greece, the transition from paganism to Christianity, and the use of Classics at the time of the founding of the modern Greek state. His interest in the history of ideas led him to utopianism, or the study of how ideas may or may not change history. He has served as a Fulbright Scholar in Greece and as president of the Bertrand Russell Society. His published articles include “Bertrand Russell and the Greeks,” “Deification of the Philosopher in Ancient Greece,” and contributions to The Dictionary of Art (now Grove Art Online).